To Stay Relevant, Radio Has To Be Friends with Amazon and family of Alexa Devices

Echo Show, Alexa makes the most sense with the screen
Amazon’s new smart speaker has a 10-inch display, so searches are more complete

It is already twenty days that we are testing Echo Show , Amazon’s 10-inch smart speaker with display, which combines the classic features of the voice assistant with images. We take for granted all the things that can be asked of Alexa (we will come back to them later on) and start with the product description.

The shape is apparently that of a tablet, even if the back is not flat but pyramidal, to house two 2-inch neodymium drivers and a passive radiator that return a powerful and defined sound, even if with a slight tendency to bass too pronounced. The equipment is completed by eight microphones to receive and interpret at best the voice commands and, included in the body, the antennas necessary to communicate with smart appliances that use the Zigbee protocol , such as light bulbs, interphones, cameras and thermostats.

But the added value gives it a touch display of good size even if not of excellent resolution (720p).

That is where the vocal requests made to the Echo Show “come to life”.

You can ask Alexa which movies and there are in the cinema and show you the trailers in Italian (you need to install the MyMovies skill). You can view a recipe step by step while you are cooking – and indeed the kitchen seems to be the most suitable environment for this type of product – or ask for the weather forecast for the next few days. You can browse the internet with one of the two pre-installed browsers (Firefox and Silk), see the Vevo music videos or the Amazon Prime Video movies and TV series.

You can track the shipment of a package (Amazon, of course), view an itinerary on the maps or make video calls to anyone who has Echo Spot, Echo Show or the Alexa App (Skype is coming).

In short, there is a whole series of functions more than the already popular classic smart speakers, which, given the price which is certainly not prohibitive for the gagdet ( € 229 ), make us advise the purchase. In short, Alexa has an edge over the screen . It could have even more, if Echo Show was a bit more customizable – being able to install apps, for example – or if the video sector could be used more (let’s think about the lack of Netflix, for example). And, again, if some somewhat cumbersome mechanisms, such as having to explicitly ask which skill to use to perform a certain action, were simplified.